Capt. Scott Bravener enters the Mariner Hall of Fame

Captain Scott F. Bravener has been selected as the Marine Man of the Year for 2013.

Captain Bravener has served as Lower Lakes’ President and Chief Executive Officer since its inception in 1994, and until 2001 also served as the Captain of the Cuyahoga, a vessel owned by Lower Lakes. Captain Bravener has worked in the Great Lakes shipping industry since 1982, serving in various capacities for Canada Steamship Lines Inc. and P & H Shipping prior to the formation of Lower Lakes.

Captain Bravener is a director of the Canadian Shipowners’ Mutual Assurance Association, is a director of the Chamber of Marine Commerce, is a certified Ships Master, is a member of the American Bureau of Shipping, and is the Immediate Past President of The Marine Club. Captain Bravener is a graduate of the Marine Navigation Technology program at Georgian College, Owen Sound and resides in Port Dover.

A plaque honoring Captain Bravener has been added to the Mariner Hall of Fame in the Museum Ship Valley Camp, located at 501 Water Street in Sault Ste. Marie.

The Mariner Hall of Fame was started in 1955 by the Sault Area Chamber of Commerce to honor an outstanding marine person. A Blue Ribbon Committee comprised of the marine editors of the publications located in the major American and Canadian cities surrounding the Great Lakes submitted names of individuals for consideration and determined who the honoree would be. The individual was subsequently celebrated at a banquet.

In 1968, through the efforts of Thomas Manse, a Sault Ste. Marie resident, marine enthusiast and publisher of “Know Your Ships,” the Republic Steel vessel Valley Camp was brought to Sault Ste. Marie to become a marine museum. A Marine Hall of Fame with plaques of the individual honorees was eventually established on the Museum Ship Valley Camp.

The Chamber continued the Marine Man of the Year tradition until 1983 when it was discontinued. In 1993, Sault Historic Sites celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Museum Ship Valley Camp. It was decided then by Sault Historic Sites to revive the tradition of Maritime Man of the Year. The tradition has continued since then under the auspices of Sault Historic Sites, Sault Locks Visitors Center Association and the Sault Area Chamber of Commerce. A plaque of each year’s honoree is added to the Marine Hall of Fame on the Museum Ship Valley Camp.